The snow is melting in Northern Ontario, and we are all looking forward to summer. The Sudbury airport is seeing more passengers. As well, the Porter Airlines deal with Air Transat promises better connections to points eastward and beyond for YSB passengers in 2022. It is an exciting time for the airport.

ASP Highlights at the Sudbury Airport Include:

• We played a major role in assisting the client with completing a formal RAIC Audit for Transport Canada. ASP plays an integral role administrating the YSB Pass Office.

• Five new guards have been onboarded to fill open roles left by two guards leaving ASP and one guard stepping back from full time to casual hours.

• A new testing and audit program is being implemented to keep all guards current with the clients Post Orders and Standard Operating Procedures.

• The guards requested moving to continental shifts at YSB to achieve more meaningful time off and better manage open shifts. This was implemented in late fall of 2021 and the satisfaction rate is high and has also allowed overtime rates in excess of 30% to be reduced to below 3%.

Hello ASP! I hope your Spring is coming along nicely! At YYC, the training and the passenger volume are increasing! We have some exciting opportunities in store for the family here in Calgary; the airport is looking for people to staff some new positions in both operations and across different contracts. I’m certain that in the very near future, we will have the opportunity to show our client that we can gracefully expand into wider ranging roles at the airport. To our YYC based staff, this is only going to become the reality if you continue to keep up the excellent job that you all have shown you are capable of.

Some developments here include the transition to team based KPIs. The client is interested to see the way that each team does the job—that’s right everyone—the competition is on! Each team will be analyzed for the number of alarms, the quality of the data and reports made, the volume of the work being completed, and more. This is the time to show that your team deserves the top spot, and maybe even take home some fun incentives! First and foremost, make sure that the information taken down in your activity reports is accurate and shows off our professionalism.

I’m also super excited about the move toward in person training! In the coming days we will have de-escalation training, continuing AVOP training, SOC training and more!

On that note, we have a new supervisor coming on board, Robin Yorga, who has gone through ITP, Basic, Post familiarization, SOC training, and will begin AVOP and Supervisor training before the end of March. Three cheers for making it through all that training in one go! I’m also happy to announce that our SOC Operator, Samson Beddall, has taken a position with the client as an Airport Operations Control Specialist. YYC is getting some talent and ASP wishes you all the best, Sam!

The entire team here at YYC is growing in their ability and it has been recognized throughout the wider airport. All I want to say is this: let’s keep the positive momentum going and keep on outdoing ourselves! Until next time, take care of yourselves!

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate our Access Control Officer Moises Raguindin and Security Specialist Daveshwar Bharose for receiving an Eye on Safety award from the GTAA.

To support the vision of zero injures, the GTAA established the Eye on Safety Recognition Awards Program. These awards increase awareness on the importance of safety and security at Toronto Pearson and show their appreciation for airport employees who have gone above and beyond. On Feb 20, 2022, Moises and Daveshwar noticed a vehicle immersed in flames at the Terminal parking lot and immediately notified GTAA emergency services. After calling the emergency in, both made sure no one was in the vehicle and started to clear the area.

Once the area was clear, they quickly located the nearest fire extinguishers and started to extinguish the fire until GTAA emergency services arrived on the scene. Moises and Daveshwar, your work and dedication is outstanding – we really appreciate you going above and beyond!

We are well on our way through 2022 and we are beginning to see a change for the positive for business operations. Below is a focus on activity we have had in each of our operations:

Pearson Airport Security

• ASP is very excited to have been successful in retaining the security contract for GTAA for 7 years.
• GTAA has expanded the face mask enforcement project by adding 10 additional Posts.
• In January, GTAA started the temporary foreign worker vacation initiative again.
• We have been made aware that the Arrival testing program has been extended until the end of April.
• GTAA and ASP rolled out RAP+2.0, which is still at the testing stage.
• A detailed I-spring module was created for the British Airway contract.

Calgary Airport Security

• We have had a change of management at YYC, with the sudden departure of Matthew Szajkowski, we are please to announce that Kevin Hepburn will be the interim Operations Manager.
• Welcome Kevin Hepburn. Kevin has transferred from our Pearson operation with a vast experience in airport operations. Notwithstanding recently being a Duty Manager at Billy Bishop Airport and prior to that was a Safety and Security Manager at the GTAA.
• We had a very successful job-fair in Calgary and are in the process of getting new staff onboarded
  and trained.
• We have an aggressive training plan for the start of this year. This will cover training from the onboarding of new Access Control staff, all the way through Terminal Patrollers, Supervisors, SOC, and AVOP.

Sudbury Airport Security

We assisted with and completed a TC audit report for the Pass Office.

• The Pass office hours have been extended and it is now open 5 days a week.

• 5 more employees were added to the schedule.

• Thanks to the team, we have seen a great improvement on the completion of reports. There is still some improvement to be made, so keep up the good work.

• YSB has had a significant impact of Omicron – Air carriers changed and cancelled some of their flights, resulting in YSB has reduced terminal hours.

We are all looking forward to the imminent return of life back to ‘normality’. It has been a challenging 2 years and everyone – clients, valued ASP employees, and
the travelling public alike cannot wait to recommence travelling again.

I would like to start by addressing our current staffing issues at YYC. 2021 has been a challenging year, and although we have been actively recruiting since the summer, we could not have anticipated the unusually long wait times for TC clearances. We currently have over 20 individuals who have been hired but cannot train because they do not yet have clearance. This has led to many issues but because of the great teamwork we have here, everyone worked together, and we were able to get through this difficult time. TC clearances have finally started coming through and we should start to see more staff soon.

As a result, I want to thank each one of you for the hard work you’ve put in over the last 6 months. Many of you have been reassigned while on shift, assisted in covering breaks or asked to complete work you do. Many of you have also been working so much overtime that I don’t think you ever leave work. If this was any other team, I don’t think we would have been able to make it through this tough time. Secondly, I would like to discuss supervision at YYC. Our contract was recently extended and as part of that extension, a change was made in the supervisor structure.

Thank you again to everyone for working as a team and stepping up when it was needed. Your hard work and dedication have not gone unnoticed.

While we previously had an ITB and DTB Supervisor, a decision was made to have one Terminal Supervisor and one Airside Supervisor. This will increase supervision on the airside and will better help structure our team. We have lost of few supervisors over the last few months and have been using backup Supervisors ever since. Part of the reason for not filling these positions sooner was because of this structural change to the team. Now that the contract has been signed, we are actively recruiting new supervisors and they will be on the floor soon.

The supervisors will go through an enhanced training program meant to better develop their interpersonal skills and ensure better communication with staff. I believe this training will make a great difference and will benefit all staff. Thank you again for all the hard work, everyone is proud of everything this team has accomplished and what we all know we will accomplish in the future.

2021 has been a very difficult year but if we made it through this there’s no reason we can’t make it through any other challenges, especially once this pandemic has ended.

Karl joined ASP after a 36-year career in Bell Canada of which 17 were spent in a managerial capacity. He initially started his security career with the Commissioners at YSB and transitioned over to ASP in 2020. Karl worked his way up from Guard to a Lead Guard, then was promoted to acting supervisor in early November. Karl was promoted to the position of Site Security Manager at Sudbury Airport effective December 1, 2021. Karl will be responsible for operations management, employee management, client, and customer relations at YSB. Karl would like to thank everyone who supported and accommodated the onboarding training for him on short notice. Please join me in congratulating Karl and wish him all the best in his new role

With the holiday season upon us, we have had a busy quarter and some great work being done by our ASP team in Aviation Security.

Pearson Airport Security

Below are some of the post updates for the last quarter for 2021:

• G172C opened 24/7
• FA3022 opened for 16 hours a day
• NPSV tunnel opened for 8 hours a day
• L262 reopened to pre-covid hours
• FD3078 post hours extended to pre-covid hours
• FC3057 hours extended to 16 hours a day
• To support the T1 west bridge specialist guards, the T1 level 4 west bridge position was added

Upcoming Changes:

• NPSV ASIG opening for 8 hours
• T1 Door Patrol A position to be reinstated
• Face mask positions to now be 24/7 operations and 7 additional positions are to be added

Additional Updates

• With many of the posts being reopened or hours extending, most of the schedules in the shift bid have been updated
• Kenaidan successfully finished the Sectorization project in T1 and the entire Kenaidan team was very appreciative of the support and the services they received from ASP
• This year’s runway project was a success, thank you to all the employees who went out of their way to support ASP and the GTAA with this project

Calgary Airport Security

• The Contract with ASP has been renewed for another year, thank you to all the team for your dedication and hard work
• We have been successful in gaining a new position to carry out fire extinguisher and first aid kit inspections
• NPS-A is still closed; no confirmed date as to when this will reopen yet
• We are looking for Supervisors, the positions have been posted, please apply if you wish to be considered for this position
• Have been actively recruiting since June to increase our staff numbers in the operation. Please remember we have a referral bonus scheme for anyone that is referred, and the bonus will be paid out as soon as they have completed their training

Sudbury Airport Security

• A townhall meeting was held by ASP to discuss several items with employees
• We created a continental shift in collaboration with the ASP team
• We had a vacancy for a supervisor. Karl Katzur was appointed as an interim supervisor to support the operation. Karl demonstrated great leadership, dedication and support to the ASP team and was soon promoted and appointed as the Contract Security Manager. Congratulations and well-done Karl

I would like to thank each ASP employee for their hard work and continued dedication in providing the exemplary service ASP is known for. I would like to wish everyone well for the Holiday Season and a prosperous New Year

On behalf of ASP, I want to thank Garinder for being part of the ASP family for 15 years. Garinder started with ASP in November 2006 as a casual guard, worked in T3 at Duty-free and Air India flights. He also worked at various posts in terminal and airside. Garinder proved himself and was promoted to acting supervisor for Air India and Caribbean airline. After a period, he became a permanent Airline Supervisor and Cargo Screener.

A few years later once Air India stopped operations from YYZ, Garinder was moved to Billy Bishop Airport as full-time supervisor. From Billy Bishop airport, he came back to Pearson Airport as an airside and terminal supervisor. In 2013, Garinder was promoted to Service delivery manager for adhoc services and in 2016 promoted to Services Delivery Manager for terminal access control contract. In 2018, he took charge of the specialist contract and in 2019 his title was changed to Operation Manager. In 2021 Garinder was promoted to Senior Operations Manager, due to his dedication, focus and exemplary service delivery not only to the ASP employees, but also to the GTAA. Obviously, reaching this milestone is an exceptional occasion.

It is also a special occasion for ASP as it is a testament to Garinder’s loyalty to ASP over the years. Garinder is a valued member of our family, and his continued contributions are vital for ASP to continue to succeed in fulfilling our mission, vision and stated values Garinder, symbolizes everything we stand for, and we are happy that he has chosen to make ASP an integral part of his professional journey. I am honored to have Garinder in our legacy and would like to express my gratitude for going the extra mile each time he has been called. Once again, Garinder, thank you for your hard work and dedication. We look forward to your continued contributions and a bright and prosperous future together.

As we move into fall there has been a lot of activity within the Aviation Division over the last 3 months which are worth highlighting.

Pearson Airport Security

• The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) has implemented a mandatory vaccine policy effective September 14, 2021 that requires all employers and organizations operating at GTAA to ensure that their employees achieve mandatory vaccination by October 31, 2021 by receiving the required Covid 19 vaccine approved by Government of Canada.
• As we begin business resumption with GTAA we have had multiple conversations with regards to posts reopening as we work together to recover from Covid.
• Mask enforcement still remains a priority for GTAA and additional Mask Enforcement locations have been identified.
• As of October 1st, 2021 airport staff will be relocated to the Value Park Garage from the terminal parking garages.

I’d like to introduce Sherry Akbar as our new Training Coordinator for the TPIA security department. Sherry brings a training background in Adult Education with experience as a Lead Facilitator for the Region of Peel. She also brings many years of experience in aviation screening security with extensive knowledge of Transport Canada regulations. Her expertise with in-class and individual training will be a great addition to our training team at Toronto Pearson Airport. Sherry will be working with Nataliya Boychuk to deliver the Access Control New Certification and Recertification courses along with Basic Training and any pre-deployment cross-training sessions.

“Please join me in welcoming Sherry Akbar to the team!”

Calgary Airport Security

• Calgary Airport Authority is expecting to reopen certain locations in their terminal due to increased passenger volumes, this could potentially lead to some of our previous posts reopening.
• We are currently in negotiations for extending the Security Contract with YYC.
• We are working with YYC in the adaption of the Supervisor duties to create separate Airside and Terminal Supervisors.
• Our Client Sherry Beard has moved on from YYC and has joined MLSE in Toronto, we would like to wish her every success in her future endeavours.

Sudbury Airport Security

• ASP has negotiated an extension on the Contract with YSB.
• With the increase in passenger volumes our staffing numbers have increased and we have created a better working schedule for our employees.